Avengers: Endgame - The Devastating Truth Of Why Cap Will Die To Save Tony Stark
1. The Only Way Out
The way things are poised now, we can expect both Cap and Iron Man to be willing to do whatever it takes to defeat Thanos. Cap will "do this all day," as he's said before. He'll fight until his heart gives out. Iron Man will be the one to lay down on the wire, which he has been ever since Cap said he never would be in The Avengers.
They cannot both lay down their lives, that much is certain. If one does, it means something profound, if both do, it's less impactful. It's not like Cap's allusion to someone laying down on the wire mentions more than one person. The fact that there's one is what makes that such a romantic notion.
And throughout the MCU, there have been sacrifices in that mold. Doctor Yinsen was first and then Tony Stark himself was willing to sacrifice himself to save New York from the nuke and the Chitauri; before him, Cap went in the freezer; Groot sacrificed himself in Guardians Of The Galaxy, Yondu did the same in the sequel; Skurge then did it to save the Asgardians in Thor: Ragnarok and finally both Heimdall and Vision sacrificed themselves at separate points in Infinity War. There's a rich vein of precedent here and they all mattered because it was ONE character's decision to save everyone else.
The reason why Cap's sacrifice will trump Iron Man's will to do the same thing comes down to two things. Firstly, the CAUSE of Tony Stark's obsession...
It was Yinsen's sacrifice that changed Tony Stark from being the arrogant weapons merchant to being the altruistic Iron Man. His heroism was borne in the unbreakable bond written in Yinsen's death to save him. That's why he can't escape it as much as his fears for the safety of the Earth: he's bound by his promise to a man traded his life for him. And the only possible way for that to be undone is for the same thing to happen again with Cap. Equal and opposite forces.
The second thing that will ensure that Cap will sacrifice himself is his own will for someone to live the life he wasn't able to. From where Steve is standing, Tony Stark is engaged to marry Pepper Potts and there's a pretty strong rumour that she's pregnant. At the very least there was a huge hint in Infinity War that they were planning a child. For all of his defensive humour, Tony was clearly invested in that future.
That all changed the minute Thanos and the Black Order appeared and he was thrust back onto the path he was cutting for himself through his obsessive commitment to being Iron Man. He was snapped back onto the path that would end up with him either becoming just like Thanos or dying to stop him.
Despite Cap's claims that he doesn't trade lives, we know the truth of his morality. He WILL lay down his own life for the greater good. For what he feels is right. He's done it once before and he could easily do it again to divert Tony Stark from that path. His greatest tragedy is something that could actually give Tony Stark a quiet family life. Ultimately, it makes sense that Cap would sacrifice himself to take down Thanos (or to stop the snap happening again) because he would give his life in order for Tony, Pepper and their child to have their future.
Cap has no possibly satisfying end, even if he dies for the cause, if his original sacrifice of his own destiny counts for nothing, which is why his parting gift will be to Tony. And when you think about it, that's the only thing that would make Tony deviate from his single-minded commitment to stay active as Iron Man. Not least because Cap could also use his perceived debt to Tony because of Bucky's part in the deaths of Howard and Maria Stark's further leverage.
Without a second sacrifice on his behalf in the same vein as Yinsen's, Tony will always be drawn back into the hero business. Only promising Cap that he will live the life Cap lost in his honour could possibly do that.
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